been ashamed of some of their works of darkness and do not bring into present use some of their most gross Impostures and some worse than Pagan Superstitions Yet when this light is extinguish'd it will be a most dismal and eternal Night upon the Christian world If we return to her our Ears will be bored and we shall be irredeemably enslaved The spirit of Popery if it returns and possesseth us again that hath been walking in the reformed Countries as in dry places seeking rest and finding none and finds us thus swept and garnisht will bring with it seven Devils more wicked than it self and our last estate will be worse than the first The Pride Cruelty and Avarice Domination and Luxury of their Priesthood will be aggravated upon us and the minds of the Laity more lowly depressed by Superstition and Ignorance The Gospel of Cardinal Palavicini will be the Canon of the Christian Religion or it may be something worse for who can tell what will be the Religion that that Church will offer in process of time to the world under the Christian-Name When the Pope by his pretended infallibility may make the Christian Religion what he please by interpreting adding altering or detracting with an uncontroulable Authority For us therefore to become Papists to return to the Church of Rome acknowledge the Popes Infallibility there is no other way to become Papists is virtually to betray the Christian Faith to renounce our Allegiance to our Lord Christ to prefer the Bulls of a profane Pope to the holy Oracles of God and the Revelation of Jesus God blessed for ever With this Religion therefore we can never make an accommodation we may as well make a Covenant with Hell This as Dr. Jackson one of the glories of the Church of England in his Book called The Eternal Truth of Scriptures vehemently admonisheth us admits no terms of parley for any possible reconcilement whose following words to this purpose I shall here transcribe The natural separation of this Island from those Countries wherein this Doctrine is professed shall serve as an everlasting Emblem of the Inhabitants divided Hearts at least in this point of Religion And let them O Lord be cut off speedily from amongst us and their Posterity transported hence never to enjoy again the least good thing this Land affords Let no print of their Memory be extant so much as in a Tree or Stone within our Coast Or let their Names by such as remain here after them be never mentioned or always to their endless shame Who living here amongst us will not imprint these or the like wishes in their Hearts and daily mention them in their Prayers Littora Littoribus contraria fluctibus undas Imprecor arma armis pugnent ipsique Nepotes Which he thus renders Let our forein Coasts joyn Battel in the Main E're this foul Blasphemy Great Britain ever stain Where never let it come but floating in a Flood Of our our Nephews and their Childrens blood I shall only subjoyn my hearty Desires and Prayers that we may all fear God and be zealous for his true Religion Honour the King and firmly adhere to the Government and in our several places steadily oppose and resist those Villains that are given to change That by our Vnion we may defeat the crafty designs of our cruel and implacable Enemies who if they can continue those Divisions they have made amongst us by their wicked Arts will certainly at length destroy us who are bent upon our destruction though they themselves perish with us we cease to be a Nation and our Language be forgotten in a foreign Captivity Sir Now I have given you my Answer to your Reasons to disswade me from publishing the Argument for the Bishops by representing how few of the Clergy can with reason be thought guilty of Opinions so mischievous to the Church and State which you charge to have generally corrupted them and how easily and with little consideration they will be laid aside by them I will make no other Apologie for the publishing this than that I have communicated these thoughts to no Man alive either of the Church of England or any other denomination or consulted any mans advice about it That I can serve to design of no party of men herein nor any particular design of my own I wish they can be serviceable in the least degree to publick good I have had them by me a great while and have considered them under the several varieties of temper that our bodies are disposed to which induce different thoughts and various apprehensions in most things under the several passions that the fluctuation of publick affairs have occasioned under the Ebbs and Flows of Hopes and Fears in reference to the state of the Kingdom for some length of time And finding them to have the same appearance and to give me the same satisfaction in all their several postures and the views that I could take of them I assure my self I was sincere when I thought and that they result meerly from my Judgment such as it is uncorrupted That I am not perverted or biassed by any secret passion or desire of any sort which many times lurk and steal upon us deceive us unawares and undiscernedly abuse us Sir the sum of my Apologie is this that I know my self sincere of honest Intentions moved by nothing but a hearty love and affection to our King Religion and Country And for what any man shall think of me I am not Solicitous Yours T. H. The Great and Weighty CONSIDERATIONS Relating to the Duke of York OR Successor of the Crown Offered to the KING and both Houses of Parliament CONSIDERED WITH An ANSWER to a LETTER from a Gentleman of Quality in the Country to his Friend relating to the Point of Succession to the Crown Whereunto is added A short HISTORICAL COLLECTION touching the same LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be Sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster 1682. TO THE READER I Have in the Postscript offered Reasons of the Lawfulness of an Act of Exclusion which to all true Protestants must needs be desirable if it can be lawfully obtained Yet for the farther satisfaction of unthinking people and Men of weak Minds who are never certain especially in great Matters where Men of Note are divided in their Opinions but for that very Reason where they have no direct Reason to guide them in forming their Judgment remain scrupulous if not doubtful and for that they doubt they must therefore conclude the Matter as to themselves at least unlawful I have Reprinted these Discourses that were Printed near three years since in Answer to two Books written by two Eminent Persons the first supposed to be writ by a great Secretary the other by a notable Lawyer thereto employed under promises and expectations of great Preferments This mans Book especially is highly applauded by the Ducal Party his very words made the stile of the
res bonae damnari quia sunt qui iis abutuntur sed verso in morem abusu intermitti res ipsas non est infrequens The young men of the Church of England have their Heads filled with the Imagination of a numerous Sect of Presbyterians amongst us and have form'd a frightful Idea and Character of this Imaginary Sect as sworn Enemies to the Episcopal Government Whereas our old Puritans and late Dissenters I speak of the gross of them for they are not answerable for the Fools and Rogues sent amongst them or at least spirited by the Roman Priests no more than any other Party or Division of men are for the Rogues that pass under their numbers or respective denominations have not disliked the Episcopal Government though by their senseless and unaccountable scruples they have depriv'd themselves of the benefit of the Communion of our Church and thereby give so much scandal to the Government and make the Popish Plot considerable which can no longer subsist than they are pleased to continue obstinate in their conceited follies They beg to be re-admitted to have the terms of our Communion made easie by relaxation of a Ceremony or two and a few matters of Scruple To be received again under the Governance and Guidance of our Church and are ready to acknowledge the benefit of the Episcopal Order in the Church of Christ Let this be askt by any man who doubts the truth thereof of any man that is considerable amongst our unhappy Dissenters Dr. Durel in his Book called Vindiciae Ecclesiae Anglicanae tells what a high opinion the Reformed Churches abroad have of our English Episcopacy and that the Bishops were deposed by them because they would not assist but oppos'd the Reformation not of dislike to their Order Mr. Calvin in his Opusc de Necessitate Reformandae Ecclesiae hath declared himself to be of the same mind Talem saith he there nobis Hierarchiam exhibeant in quâ sic emineant Episcopi ut Christo subesse non recusent ut ab illo tanquam vinco capite pendeant ad ipsum referantur in quâ sic inter se fraternam Societatem colant ut non alio modo quam ejus veritati sint colligati Tum vero nullo non anathemate dignos fatear si quis erunt quos non eam revereantur summâque obedientiâ observent His very good liking and great approbation of the Order appears plainly by the earnestness and vehemency of his stile whereby he expresseth himself in the matter Beza de Minist Evangel Gradibus Cap. 23. affirms Essentiale fuit quod ex Dei ordinatione perpetua necesse fuit est erit ut Presbyterio quispiam loco dignitate primus Actioni Gubernandae praesit cum eo quod ipsi divinitus attributum est jure Peter de Moulin Part. 2. Thes 33. Episcopos Angliae inquit post conversionem ad fidem Ejuratum Papismum asserrimus fuisse fideles Dei Servos ne debuisse deserere munus vel Titulum Episcopi Monsieur Drelincourt in his Letters from Geneva upon the happy Restoration of our King 1660 saith Quandoquidem Germania Helvetia suos habent inspectores superintendentes Dania vero ac Suecia suos Episcopos non video cur quis offendi debeat quod Angliae sui etiam sint Episcopi Quod si eadem Regminis forma apud hujus Regni Ecclesias non obtineat id ideo fit quod non convenit cum rerum nostrarum statu cui nihil aptius excogitari potest quam pastorum aequalitas verum si Deus apud quem omnia possibilia in cujus manu sunt Corda Regum ac populorum Monarchae nostro omnibus illius subditis aut saltem maximae eorum parti eam gratiam indulgerent ut reformationem Evangelicam amplecterentur meo quidem judicio impossibile esset inter tantum pastorum numerum aequalitatem retinere compelleret que necessitas ad instituendos quosdam qui aliqua praeeminentiâ gauderent prae caeterîs quique eorum moribus invigilarent The great men of the French Protestant Church though under the state of a severe Persecution who follow the Institutions of Mr. Calvin do at this time applaud the Constitution of our Church and speak of it in terms of high esteem and honour as may be seen in the Letters of Monsieur Moyne Monsieur de l'Angle and Monsieur Claude written to my Lord of London Published by the Dean of Pauls in his Book called the Vnreasonableness of Separation Dr. Durel after he hath in the aforementioned Book shewed that Geneva was a Free City of the Empire of most ancient time That the Soveraign Authority was in the Senate of that City That the Bishop was Chosen by the Canons and Citizens and Swore Allegiance to the Government before he entred the City and that the Consuls of the City did take his Oath That Petrus de Baulme their last Bishop Anno Dom. 1533. being detected of a design to betray the City to the Duke of Savoy fled from the City and at that time the City was and for two years after continued Roman Catholick so that what wrong if any was done to the Bishop was done by the Papists That two years after the Bishop fled from the punishment of his Crimes the Authority of the Senate attempted the Reformation of Religion After this I say Dr. Durel thus concludes Confidenter dicam Genevenses cum Religionem emendarunt Episcopalis regiminis ab Ecclesiâ Eliminatiomem reformationis partem necessariam haud duxisse Besides all amongst us that have the name of Presbyterian called upon them at the pleasure of the Popish Faction subscribe to the Nine and Thirty Articles in what they declare of the Doctrine of the Church of England about Obedience to our King and Governours and are therefore in profession as Loyal as any of those that boast themselves True Sons of the Church of England Indeed Scotland hath been disgrac'd by a vile sort of Presbyterians the onely true Presbyterian Sectaries in the world in any considerable body or union These men have deservedly put that name under eternal infamy by their turbulent and contumacious carriage against the Kingly Authority But to speak the truth this is not imputable so much to Presbytery as to the barbarous Manners and rough Genius of that Nation Though it hath afforded some men in all Ages of great Excellency in all sorts of the most commendable Qualities That Nation was infamous for Disloyalty and a barbarous Treatment of their Kings before Buchanan and Knox were born The Scots boast of One hundred and fifty Kings in Succession in that Kingdom how many Names they have feigned to make out the boast of the Auncientry of their Kingdom we do not know but certain it is they really Imprisoned Deposed and Murdered Fifty of their Kings at least before the time of Mary Queen of Scots whose prosecution was promoted and assisted by the English Bishops A fine Kingdom
King and Estates of Parliament is as antient as any thing can be remembred of the Nation The attempt of altering it in all Ages accounted Treason and the punishment thereof reserved to the Parliament by 25 Edw. 3. The conservancy of the Government being not safely to be lodg'd any where but with the Government it self Offences of this kind not pardonable by the King because it is not in his power to change it This is our Government and thus it is established and for Ages and immemorial time hath thus continued a long Succession of Kings have recognized it to be such And just now when we are under the dread of a Popish Successor some of our Clergy are illuminated into a mystery that hath been concealed from the beginning of Governments to this day from the wisdom of all Princes and Ministers of State That any authority in the Government not derived from the King and that is not to yeild to his absolute Will was rebellious and against the Divine Right and Authority of Kings in the Establishment against which no usuage or prescription to the contrary or in abatement of it is to be allowed That all Rights are ambulatory and depend for their continuance upon his pleasure So that though the Reformation was made here by the Government established by Law and hath acquired civil Rights not to be altered but by the King and the three Estates These men yet speak say you as if they envied the Rights of their own Religion and had a mind to reduce the Church back again into a state and condition of being persecuted and designed she should be stripped of her Legal Immunities and Defensatives and brought back to the deplorable helpless condition of Prayers and Tears do utterly abandon and neglect all the Provisions that God's providence hath made for her protection Nay by this their new Hypothesis they put it by Divine Right into the power of a Popish Successor when he pleaseth at once by a single indisputable and irresistable Edict to destroy our Religion and Government And these opinions you say they are the more inclined to entertain for that they believe no Plot but a Presbyterian Plot for of them they believe all ill and call whom they please by that hated name and boldly avow that Popery is more eligible than Presbytery for by that they shall have greater Revenues and more Authority and Rule over the Lay-men This is a heavy Charge if true but it is imputable I am sure but to a few and not so generally as some malevolent men of the Popish Faction are industriously busie to have it For if it were I confess it might choque the constancy Resolution and Zeal of the most addicted to the service of the Church-men and make them at least very indifferent in their Concerns For these mistakes are so gross and inexcusable that they ought if they could perish by themselves to be permitted to suffer the smart of their own follies and to be corrected by the evils they are drawing down upon themselves with their own hands They deserve to suffer as betrayers of their own Country To be prosecuted with greater shame and ignominy by all of the Reformed Religion than the Traditores were by the Antient Christians These their deserting of the true Christian Faith being much less excusable than their fault that deserved that name and of greater mischief as of deeper malignity How many of the Clergy-men are thus misled we know not but they seem many more than they are because they are most in view and come often under observation frequent publick houses and talk loud because they want the Complement of their Preferments But certainly Sir what you say to be the declared Opinions of some Clergy-men is the business now of the Papists to propagate Hoc Ithacus velit magno mercantur Atridae These are agreeable to and indeed make up the most modern Project and Scheme of the Popish Plot. Since the discovery of their first Design of killing the King and massacring of the Protestants they have taken such courage by observing how little power we have to prevent their Design that they have us in scorn and in the vilest contempt They now think that we are not worth destroying but by our own hands that we are not worthy of their trouble or the charge of Executioners of their providing How entertaining is it to his Holiness to find the Church of England the impregnable Bulwark of the Reformed Religion easily fall into his hands by the unpresidented folly of some of her Sons without the trouble of attacking her either by Force or Argument which have hitherto wanted success and such attempts always attended with dishonour and mischief to his See How pleasant will it be to him to see us perish and our destruction to be from our selves With this he will answer all the irrefragable Apologies of the Church of England for her departure from the Communion of the Romish Church Then he will say with triumph our Church destroyed her self and perished by a Divine Fate for her unwarrantable and Sacrilegious Schism for so he will call our Follies and impute them to Divine infatuations The manner of our destruction will be a better Argument and of more force against the Doctrine of the Reformation than all the Arguments of all the Doctors of that Church to this day For this purpose since the Discovery of the Popish Plot it is that Sir Robert Filmers Books were Re-printed together and recommended by the Title-page and the Publick Gazet to our reading Since the Discovery of the Plot we have had variety of Books Printed to the same purpose viz To prove that all Kings as Kings are absolute by Divine Right Since the Discovery of the Popish Plot we have had men imployed to search all our antient Records and Histories to find out something more antient than our Parliaments as now constituted that it may serve as a pretence to take them away Since the Discovery of the Popish Plot we have the memory of our late calamitous War revived to raise a Panick fear of another and to make the King believe that the genius of the Nation is Rebellious and that the Protestant Religion it self is to be apprehended by Kings It is difficult to tell how that late unhappy War began or how it came to issue so Tragically in the Death of the late King though we know how it ended viz. The Nation recovered within twelve years after the most deplorable Death of that excellent King into a renowned Loyalty and in spight of a great Armed Power never before foil'd ever victorious then kept on foot for the Interest of a very few men restored our present King may his Reign be long and happy to the Government of his Kingdoms without the least assistance of any of the Cavalier-party and oblig'd a wary General in the head of a factious and republican Army to Loyalty Nay within that time also
that may happen in humane affairs and so they must be intended and so interpreted The several limitations of the descent of the Crown must be made by the people in conferring the Royal Dignity and Power which is more or less in several Kingdoms And the descent of the Crown in particular cases is governed according to the presumed will of the People and the presumption of the Peoples will is made by measuring and considering what is most expedient to the publick good whereas private Estates are directed in their descent according to the presumed will of the Decedents And this is the reason tha◠the descent of the Crown is governed by other rules than private Estates Onely one Daughter and not all as in private Estates shall succeed to the Crown because the strength of the Kingdom is preserved when continued united and the peace and concord of the people better established A son of the second venter shall inherit which is not allowed in private Estates because a son of the second venter is equally of the bloud of the great Ancestor upon whom the Crown was first conferred by the people or after he had got into the Throne obtain'd their Submissions and may equally participate of his virtues If the Royal Family be extinct it belongs to the people to make a new King under what limitations they please or to make none for the Polity is not destroyed if there be no King created and consequently in case of this cesser or discontinuance of the Regnum there may be Treason committed against the people By all which it is evident that the Succession to the Crown is the peoples right And though the Succession to the Crown is Hereditary because the people so appointed it would have it so or consented to have it so yet in a particular case for the saving the Nation the whole Line and Monarchy it self it may be altered by the unlimited power of the Legislative Authority We have been more just to the Royal Succession than the wonderful Sir Robert Filmer for his Hypotheses will not allow at all of Hereditary rightful Succession For he establishing the right of the universal Empire of the World in Adams right Heir since this Illuminato hath enlightned the world in this secret no Successor can according to his Doctrine derive any hereditary right from his Predecessor His title can be only his own possession for no man can claim by descent the Usurpation of his Father but he that is not conscious to the wrong and is bonae fidei possessor under the presumed right and title of his Father I would be understood to speak as the matter can be considered in a free reason not under the prejudice of any positive municipal Law for to such Laws the right of Crowns as the renowned Knight will have it are not submitted So that here in this matter their Knight fails them and can give them no help Their other friend the great Leviathan-maker is so far from establishing an Hereditary Succession that he leaves Kings to be rightfully assaulted deposed and destroyed by any person that can who stands in danger of being destroyed by the King though justly condemned to death Leviathan Part 2. cap. 21. Those saith he that have committed a capital Crime for which they expect death have the liberty to defend themselves by Arms as well as the Innocent But I mention him onely to render him detestable for I take his Books to be the dehonestamenta humani generis But I desire them to regard the sence of all Mankinde in the words of Isiodorus Pelusiota 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This governed the Judicious and Learned Dr. Falkner for when he had carried Christian Loyalty as high as he could to the honour of our Religion and the benefit of the world for which we are all extreamly beholden to him he concludes thus in his excellent Book called Christian Loyalty viz That if any Prince undertakes to alienate his Kingdom or to give it up into the hands of another Soveraign Power or that really acts the Destruction or the Vniversal Calamity of his people Grotius thinks that in his utmost extremity the use of a Defence as a last refuge ultimo necessitatis presidio is not to be condemned provided the care of the Common Good be preserved And if this be true saith he it must be upon this ground that such attempts of ruining do ipso facto include a disclaiming the governing of these persons as Subjects and consequently of being their Prince or King What unreasonableness is there then in shutting the Door upon him and making it fast against him by an Act of State who hath excluded himself by his principles and designs For the truth of the fact I shall onely refer you to his Secretary Coleman his Letters wherein he saith That his Masters interest and the King of France his interest is one and the same and their design their glorious design the same viz the extirpating the Northern Heresie How far the King of France hath complied with the design the cruel Persecution and Exiles of his Protestant Subjects who at the time of that Letter were under the security and protection of the Laws of that Kingdom and the Faith of that Crown do declare to the world And by what secret influences I know not he is made so great his Conquests so easie and expedite that he is like to do the work himself here in England too and go away with all the Glory But if the work must lie upon our hands let no man think with himself that Popery is not to be introduced here because the numbers of Papists are few for that will not render the design impracticable but the execution of it more cruel and barbarous a whole Nation upon the matter must be corrupted from the Faith of the true Religion or destroy'd One single arm of an ordinary strength not resisted may assassinate a whole Nation Let no man betray his Country and Religion by pretending the example of the patience and sufferance of the Primitive Christians for our rule The Reformed Religion hath acquired a civil right and the protection of Laws if we ought not to lose our Lives Liberties and Estates but where forfeited by Law we ought much rather not to lose them for the profession of the best Religion which by Law is made the publick National Religion And it is strange that some men of the same Religion in profession can think that notwithstanding it makes no matter what is done to men if they be Religious but if they be not so the least publick injuries and injustice threatned or done them may be resisted vindicated remedied and by right defended by old Laws or new ones to be made for that purpose The Christian Religion was publish'd when the whole world was Pagan and therefore it was submitted to such usage as the Governments would give it But when the Christian Faith had by miracles of
discourse managed with almost irresistable reason candour temper and Address be matter of exasperation and they turn again and are more hardned in their obstinacies and become more confirmed in their separating way nothing but their own thoughts and the consideration in what a desperate condition they have brought the Reformed Religion by their Separation will reclaim them But it is expected that Governments should be wise that they manage and controul the Follies and Weaknesses of those committed to their care that they may do the least mischief to themselves and others and by prudent and practicable methods amend and reform them The most froward weiward and stubborn Children give their Parents the most care and opportunities of exercising the most tender love for them though they can take no complacency in their awkerdness The Church of England is concerned to retain all her Children in her Family to shut out none by abdication that their numbers be not few and she be ashamed when she speaks with her Enemy in the Gate Not to provoke any of them to wrath lest they forsake her and turn against her when distresses shall come upon her She hath reason at this time sure to make her Discipline easie and to learn of the Church of Rome to be more comprehensive Their Doctrine of comprehension is so large that it destroys the Religion to increase the number of Professors but I mean no more than that positive and alterable institutions may give place to the peace security and preservation of Religion it self to whose service they were first fram'd and design'd It hath been heretofore of old it hath been said Mores Leges in potestatem pertraxerunt suam Plato formed an Idea to himself of a Common-wealth without respect to the manners of men but he writ another which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say accommodated and fitted to the manners of the people and such as they would bear Origen in his Book against Celsus applies to Moses the Answer of a famous Law-giver who asked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. whether those Laws he had given to his Citizens were the best the answer was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. not simply the best but the best they would bear And we all know what God permitted to the Jews in the matter of Divorce for the hardness of their Hearts When all is said People must be governed as they can But in the mean time it is pity any of our zeal and indignation should be mispent when we have use for it all against the Church of Rome the source whence all our Divisions spring To which we owe the first Separations that were made in our Church which appears by undeniable Records published by Dr. Stillingfleet in his Book called the Vnreasonableness of Separation How they have propagated multiplied exasperated and promoted our Divisions to tell you would make a Volume besides no Protestant is now to know it I have only this further to observe that the Church of Rome at first only designed by the Arts of dividing us and breaking us into several Communions to disgrace the Reformation to make our spiritual Governours Pastors and Teachers lose their Authority with the People To deprave our Religion with licentious opiniastre and absurd dogmatizing to load our departure from that Church with the mischief of innumerable Schisms and to make us reconcilable to the Tyranny and Impostures of that Church from the vain opinions and licentiousness of the Sectaries who have been seduced managed inflamed and made wild by their imposturous Arts and Deceits This I believe was only at first designed by the Priests but now they apparently design by the Dissenters to destroy the Church or by the Church to destroy the Dissenters that they more easily come to rights with her They imagine the Dissenters are very numerous and that the Nation is fallen into two great parts that the Dissenters numbers are vast But God be thanked they neither make our Grand Jury-men nor the common Halls of the City of London for chusing the Lord-Mayors or Sheriffs And I challenge any man to give me a List of all the Names of Dissenters that were of the House of Commons in our two last Parliaments I am sure they will not make a Number but they reckon the Numbers of Dissenters by the care they have taken to increase it They used great art to continue the Separation when His Majesty was restored Since Laws have been made to raise the Animosities of Dissenters but scarce ever executed for repressing them If for any reason of State the Laws here and there and for a spurt have been exacted secret comforts and supports have been given to their Preachers of greatest Authority with them And when they have seem'd to preach with the courage and zeal of Confessors to their Auditors they have not only been assured of indempnity but have received rewards How prosperously did the work of Separation go on by these Councils of our Achitophels by these means they concluded it would be heightned that it would admit of no terms of an accommodation How insolent were their Harangues more taking with their deluded Auditors while they apprehended them acted with an invincible zeal of Religion What Animations did their People receive to defy the Church and her Authority when their Preachers despised Fines and Imprisonment to their seeming out of pure zeal against her Order It is well known several of them were in Pension and no men have been better received by the D. than J. J. J. O. E. B. and W. P. c. Ringleaders of the Separation Besides that Popish Priests have been taken and executed for preaching in Field-meetings in Scotland They have raised there a sort of Enthusiasts more wild and mischievous than any we had amongst us in the times of licentiousness They have had notwithstanding great Lords that have patronized them who were always well received in their applications in their favour at St. James's and several of their Preachers who were not Priests have received Exhibition and Pensions for their encouragement It was necessary that the Fanaticism planted in Scotland should be very loathsome to make that Nation abate any of their zeal for the Protestant Religion or to neglect their fears and apprehensions of Popery or to make the least step towards it Awake you drowsie Sleepers open your eyes the Sun is risen there is light enough to fill your sight if you would look up and were willing to see Could any thing be conceived more apt to bring the Church of England into contempt and scorn with those of the Separation than to have Laws made in her favour penal Laws which are thought to be of her procurement and not executed Vain and ineffective anger is always returned with contumely scorn and hatred Cupide conculcatur nimis ante metitum And so it hath succeeded in this case nothing hath been more passable than the basest scurrility upon the
proceeding upon evident notoriety to exclude one that designs the subverting of it and the destruction of those that are to be governed and protected and hath incurr'd a severer Doom I well hope there are very few in this Nation so ill instructed that doth not think it in the Power of the People to depose a Prince who really undertakes to alienate his Kingdom or to give it up into the hands of another Soveraign Power Or that really acts the Destruction or the Universal Calamity of his People The Learned and Judicious Mr. Falkner than whom there is no person of this Age with the Church of England in greater esteem Who truly merits the high esteem of all men for his excellent Candour and Learning In his Book called Christian Loyalty cannot deny the right to be so upon those cases really happening but is not willing to suppose such Cases can ever happen in Fact He tells us If any such strange Case as is proposed should really happen in the World it would have its great difficulties Grotius he tells us thinks that in this utmost extremity the use of such defence as a last refuge ultimo necessitatis proesidio is not to be condemned provided the care of the common Good be preserved And if this be true saith he it must be upon this Ground that such attempts of ruining do ipso facto include a disclaiming the Governing these persons as Subjects and conseqently of being their Prince and King and then notwithstanding his Proposition saith he would remain True viz. That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King All that Mr. Falkner offers in this matter out of his commendable Care and Zeal to Peace and Government is to argue the Cases in Fact impossible and that such suppositions may be the undue imputations of Factious persons against their Soveraign He thinks that Princes may have a Consideration of the Account they must give in the other World of their Government here That they have a regard to their Honour and Esteem and a Respect to their Safety To the quiet and serenity of their own minds and will avoid the Diroe Vltrices and the Tortures of mind that attend Cruelty and the Actors of great mischief and by such Considerations as these be contain'd in their Duty But do these Arguments of his that should reasonably and ordinarily do secure us against the Oppressions of Potentates give us in this juncture any Security are these Considerations Disswasives or Incitements to a Popish Prince to act our Fears and give reality to the Suppositions To any under the Principles and Counsels that guide such a Prince already entred upon the Design and his party obnoxious these Considerations would urge him to proceed and make our Calamity certain These Arguments of his applyed to such a state of things is like a Protestatio contra factum and like the Sophistical Arguments of the Stoicks who would undertake to prove a thing acknowledged and existent and present to be impossible How wild then and transported must this Patriot seem who will undertake to argue the Bill guilty of the highest Iniquity and Injustice Arraign the greatest and Best part of the Nation adjure them to answer it at his Tribunal challenge us for so his Expostulations and Enquiries of us doth import with intentions to over-reach Providence and that we despair of the justness of our Cause or the goodness of God And he tells us That God doth not want our Wickedness to fulfil his Holy Will We answer How far the Providence of God will assist us in this undertaking we know not it is not new in the world for the most Righteous Causes to be unprosperous we are only to do our Duty and leave the Issue and Event thereof to his All-Wise Providence But we know and are most assured of the Justness of the undertaking and we have a good hope in the goodness of God that he will succeed it for that herein we are doing nothing that is evil but fulfilling his Holy and Good Will I mean not that we are certain to obtain what we desire and pursue But it is the will of God concerning us who hath left us in the hands of our own Counsel and hath not told us That he will save us by a Miracle that we should be Loyal to our Soveraign zealously love that excellent Religion and that excellent Government that his Gracious Providence hath established amongst us by Law And also that we desire and endeavour by Law to disable in the understanding of the representative of the Nation a profest Enemy both to our Religion and Government from getting into the Throne that he be not by that advantage of Power enabled to effect his purpose But we are resolved we that will not call that Design Evil tho' it do not succeed nor think that we are not doing the Holy Will of God tho' we should be unprosperous therein and without success If there was an Oracle to Consult we would not know what the Success should be lest our Virtue should lose its Glory No brave man but would despise all Auguries when he is to contend for his Country and things more precious to him than his Life Sortilegis egeant dubij This false Patriot takes Sanctuary in his Revolt from publick Interest and he thinks he is swimming to Shore with his Plank before a Wreck and will fly the Danger before it approaches but we will do our Duty weather the Storm secure of the event for the goodness of the Cause makes us hopeful and we will Triumph in our Integrity tho' disappointed Of any other Will of God save what is his Will for us to do as Citizens Souldiers or Martyrs we are not so sollicitous to know The Noble Roman when advised by his Friend Labienus to Consult the Oracle of Jupiter Ammon as to the event of the War in which he was then engaged Thus answered him Quid Quaeri Labiene Jubes an liber in armis Occubuisse velim potius quam Regna videre An noceat vis ulla bono fortunaque perdat Opposita virtute minus Laudandaque velle Sit satis Et nunquam successu crescit Honestum Scimus haec nobis non altius inseret Ammon I do but right to my Country-men to bear my publick Testimony that their generous and godly Resolutions are agreeable to this Noble Roman But that done I will calmly tell him That we are in a Legal method allowed by the Government contending for its preservation by the Bill of Exclusion and that most certainly he can have no right against a Law for such it will be when that Bill hath the Royal Assent to any thing that he shall forfeit thereby And whether such a Law is not most righteous let God Angels and Men Judge And here it will not be amiss to admonish this Patriot That no man hath a Right to any thing from God and Nature to use his